The “threequel” nobody saw coming

I have to start this review out with mentioning that there is now confirmation that I am psychic. I wrote this review while watching the Oscars and “Green Book” won best picture. You’re welcome, Academy; it was all thanks to me. Now, a look at the Eastrail 177 trilogy.

Any of you regular readers know this to be true: I don’t like superhero movies. There are a few exceptions: “The Incredibles,” “Sky High,” “Black Panther” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” A recent addition to this list is “Unbreakable.” I had seen the film in bits and pieces until mid-2018 when I decided I needed to see it in its entirety so I could watch “Split.”

If you know M. Night Shyamalan, you know he loves a good twist ending and (spoilers) “Split” ends with the viewer learning that it takes place in the same universe as “Unbreakable.” The thing about “Unbreakable” that really speaks to me is that it doesn’t follow the conventions of a normal superhero movie. The movie ends with David Dunn (Bruce Willis) discovering that the man he befriended, Elijah “Mr. Glass” Price (Samuel Jackson), was the cause of the train accident David survived and killed many more people trying to find him. David reported Elijah’s action to the police and, upon his conviction, was committed to a psychiatric hospital.

While there are plenty of superhero movies, most of which are origin stories, we had yet to see the origin story of a supervillain until 2016 with the release of “Split.” Before knowing about the connection to “Unbreakable,” James McAvoy was the only reason I wanted to see this film.

The reason I watch most movies is because one of the actors is on my ever-growing list of babes. My reason for seeing the movie was validated in the fact that McAvoy’s ability to play eight distinct characters was the real set piece of this film.

I didn’t enjoy the criminalization of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) that the movie instills, as that happens enough in mainstream crime dramas. I also didn’t enjoy that the magical realism applied to DID (honestly it was kind of dumb), but “Unbreakable” tries very hard to be a superhero film grounded in reality, and it succeeds in my opinion. Still, the whole “The Beast” thing is still lost on me even after seeing “Glass.”

“Glass” begins with McAvoy’s voice shifting between the personalities of Patricia and Dennis. They are debating the arrival of The Beast. Fade in and Patricia walks around the corner of a warehouse and promises a group of captive cheerleaders that they don’t have to be afraid. We cut to David Dunn and we find that he’s been secretly avenging Philadelphia’s innocent for 19 years now.

It’s been three weeks since the discovery of the two bodies in the tunnels of the Philadelphia Zoo, and David and his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) are on the case. They keep a store as a front for their vigilante acts, and David is now known as “The Overseer” online.

When David goes on a walk of the perimeter of the warehouse where they believe the criminal known as The Horde is hiding the group of missing cheerleaders, he bumps into Hedwig (McAvoy). David’s supernatural ability to see the wrongs people commit through touch is activated and he sees Hedwig with the girls in a nearby warehouse. David finds them and helps them escape, but not without an appearance from The Beast. David and The Beast struggle, falling out an open window onto the street below.

Authorities are waiting outside and the two are taken to a psychiatric hospital. There, they and Elijah are confronted with the idea that maybe everything they believe about themselves is wrong.

I’ll start off with the good stuff, though. Clark gave my favorite performance of the movie in his reprisal of the role of Joseph Dunn. (Yes, even more than McAvoy. Surprising, I know.)

To quote “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” he plays the classic comic book character trope of “the guy in the chair.” It’s understood that Joseph is conflicted over whether or not he should encourage his aging father to put himself in dangerous situations, even if it is for the greater good.

Phenomenal as ever, McAvoy played 20 different characters over the course of the film opposed to the eight seen in “Split.”

I enjoyed the return of the color scheme from “Unbreakable” and the new schemes they added in. I have a very confusing love/hate relationship with the pink room in the psychiatric hospital because I can’t help but think, “Grand Budapest à la M. Night Shyamalan.”

I don’t dislike “Glass” as much as I thought I would because it’s misguided in many ways. The pacing falls entirely flat as soon as they enter the hospital. Sarah Paulson gives her worst performance I think I’ve ever seen, and I was, originally, so excited when I saw first saw she was a cast member. The twist ending made me feel more angry then at peace. The cinematography, also, just got boring at parts. (How many times can you do a reverse-Steadicam on Bruce Willis? The answer is too many.)

In conclusion, there were times in “Glass” when I was enjoying myself, and there were times when I was not. Sadly, this movie falls into the same category as all other mediocre sequel/reboots that come out years later, probably because the movie industry is out of ideas. RIP.

Rating: 6/10